The majority (72%) felt that their doctors cared about them enough and did not withhold important information from them, but 21% said they were uncertain as to whether their doctors would withhold information. Fifty-three percent did not believe that prostate cancer was a common part of aging, but 34% were uncertain.

Overall, 53% of respondents and 55% of Blacks expressed uncertain feelings as to whether or not they were likely to develop prostate cancer. The majority (82%) believed that prostate cancer can be cured if detected early and 83% believed that screening is effective in finding the cancer early. Most (48%) were uncertain as to whether a person with prostate cancer will die within a few years and 43% did not believe they will die within a few years. Although 72% believed that men can have prostate cancer without having a family history of the disease, 25% were uncertain.

Generally, most respondents (60%) said that they wanted to do what their immediate family thought was important for detecting prostate cancer early. More Blacks (82%) than Whites (55%) said that they would do what their family member thought was important. Half (50%) said that they would get tested for prostate cancer if their wife or girlfriend told them to get a test.

Discussion
This exploratory analysis done with the use of descriptive statistics yielded some valuable results. It was found that most of the men in the sample did not find it difficult to obtain screening for prostate cancer. However, far too many did not avail themselves of this vital screening. That finding shows that while they have the sense that the screening is important, knowledge alone did not offer sufficient motivation to take decisive action to engage in health-seeking behaviors. Also, it was found that among those who had regular checkups, about half of the men did not discuss prostate cancer with their doctors. These findings are interesting in that they point to the fact that there are indeed barriers that short-circuit the motivation necessary for acting consistent with knowledge about this important health concern, prostate cancer. These findings are consistent with those of Fearing, et. al., 2000, and Etzioni, et. al., 2002).

Another interesting finding of the study was the lack of knowledge of the men about the presence of prostate cancer in their family history. This finding points to the need of men in this context to be sensitized to risk factors for prostate cancer and how to manage these risk factors. Doctors played a crucial role in the diagnosis of this problem. Therefore, patients should be invited to discuss the issue on their regular checkups and care should be taken to educate men about this problem